Octal Transmit Receive Module for Wideband Phased Arrays

Abstract

Active Phased array systems are widely used in radar, electronic warfare (EW), and communication applications. The SWaP-CR performance of any active phased array system is dictated entirely by its key transmit/receive modules. This paper presents on design aspects of the octal transmit and receive module (OTRM) for a 4×8 element wideband phased array operating over more than 2.5 octaves of bandwidth for EW application. A compact and efficient GaN-based OTRM is designed and realized to deliver CW output power of 38 dBm (min) per T/R channel. A novel scheme of switched phase shifters is employed in OTRM to cover 5 GHz operating bandwidth.